Remember THIS from a telethon in 2005 for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Kanye West rattled on but the man was angry. Mike Myers and his facial expressions will go down in infamy.
Well, today on Hardball we have New York Times columnist Charles Blow slamming President Obama and the weak response, thus far to the residents of Southern Louisiana. He was clearly upset himself, that he said if Barack Obama does not get it together HE will have a Kanye moment, "..President Obama doesn't care about Bayou People."
The reality is this, the people in that region DO NOT TRUST BP. They don't trust the government and is close to REALLY NOT TRUSTING Barack Obama. Perception, Barack Obama has a problem.
I posted a diary earlier about the reality settling in on the Gulf Coast Region, and yes, President Obama is on the way to correct all of this but to these folks NOT SOON ENOUGH. And he does not need to be in the Southern Gulf States everyday, but DAMN he needs to get that communication together down there. Though I do believe there is a start there, many are highly skeptical and I don't blame them.
My father lives in the Gulf and he hates BP now. I mean, I could not write enough cuss words as how he feels, but he said the President needs to put folks in charge that people believe and let BP go.
I watched Anderson Cooper tonight and one of his guests was Spike Lee talking about his new updated story on Louisiana and how it is now encompassing BP. Lee spoke to Lt. General Russell Honore (Retired). A man who told Lee he is WAITING to take charge of this catastrophe because the people in this region don't trust anything BP says and losing faith in government. Honore is from this region, people respected and TRUSTED what he said during Hurrican Katrina, and one who is blunt to telling it like it is. This means even if he calls a bunch of reporters, "stuck on stupid."
My take, let Honore take charge. From what I remember of him taking control of Hurricane Katrina it actually helped George W. Bush, though the public still put the blame on him. We need a strong presence in that region, more importantly one the public respects and TRUST. That "trust" thing is singularly hurting President Obama, as we watch him play catch up on this catastrophe. Why do we need all of this? Because this spill will continue to pump that crude oil in the Gulf.
This disaster will be at our feet for a long time. The mission for the White House is that there is "no more live feed because the well is capped". Great, but in the interim this will be a, "long, hot, summmer."